the white house certainly seemed to be backtracking this weekend. a senior official told the national journal on sunday it was fair to say obama's considering candidates other than hagel for defense secretary, so will republicans get their way again? as democrats are left scratching their heads about the possibility of the president getting rolled on a second nomination, the question for them is if hagel is really toast, is obama milk toast? i'm going right to joy reid, you don't like milk toast leadership, i don't know where you stand on toast. >> it's carbohydrate-laden, so i'm against it. >> it's the holidays. >> that's true. >> people are royally upset. hagel said objectionable things, no one, not even his people, are defending that. on the other hand, as i said, he would be, by the standards of pentagon leadership, which is its own metric, he would be a more liberal, more reformist voice for a more multilateral and constrained pentagon policy, yet he's running into all this opposition. >> exactly, and if you look at people opposing him, these a